All things seemed now to conspire for the peace of Muscovy. The two brothers now reigned, in conjunction with Princess Sophia, who had her image stamped on the coin, together with theirs, and signed all writings, not only in the empire, but to foreign courts. She frequented the Senate diligently, exhorted the members of it to their duty, governed with great prudence, and shewed a zeal for the welfare of the empire: but her love for her brother John made her take every step she could to the prejudice of Peter. She procured John a wife, notwithstanding his ill state of health; and not only neglected the education of young Peter, but strove to ruin him in the opinion of all good men: and to render him incapable of good government, placed about him every object that might fix his attention, stifle his natural light, corrupt his heart, and debauch his manners; and at last resolved to put the finishing stroke to her politics; and, having engaged Prince Galliczin to put in execution the cruel scheme of murdering her brother Peter, they pitched upon Theodore Thekelavitau, who had succeeded Couvanski in the post of General over the Strelitzes, to be the principal instrument of their bloody enterprize.

The Czar Peter was, at this time, at Obrogensko, a country palace, about a short league from Moscow. Hither Theodore was marching with 600 Strelitzes, whom he thought he could rely upon; but two of them, shocked at the thoughts of staining their hands in the blood of their Prince, withdrew privately, and arrived time enough to advertize Czar Peter of the confpiracy, and to give him time to escape. Peter was in bed; but, jumping out, he immediately fled, with his mother, wife, and fifter; and disappointed the traitors: who, having searched for the Czar, were informed by the guard, that his Majesty was just departed with great precipitation from that palace.

Peter was now eighteen, and married to Ottokesa Federowna, daughter

of the Boyar Fedor Abrahamowitz, intirely against the inclinations of Sophia, and to the great increase of Peter's party, which hitherto had been weakeft; and he, finding himself in a place of safety, fent letters to the Regent that same evening, to reproach her with her treacherous intent. She absolutely denied the fact, pretending that these guards went only to relieve the others then on duty; which was improbable, because soldiers are always relieved in the day-time. Wherefore the Czar published the attempt, ordered the militia to be raised, and summoned the Boyars, who, in a week's time attended his person in great numbers. Galliczin excused himself, on a pretence of being restrained by Czar John; and both he and the Princess Regent tried to secure the Strelitzes to their interest, by infinuating that Peter had some designs against the peace of the State. But, though they injoined the soldiers not to obey Peter's orders on pain of death, they deserted her interest. This difconcerted all her treasons, and reduced the ambitious Sophia to disguise her treachery with most humble follicitations and declarations of her innocence, by the mediation of two of Peter's aunts, &c. But Peter was not any more to be deceived by weak excuses, and fair promises; and having convinced his relations of her guilt, and that there was a real attempt to murder him, and to cut off all his fa. mily, he published a proclamation to apprehend the traitors. So there was now no means left to work upon the mercy of the incensed Monarch, but to cast themselves at his feet. Accordingly Sophia set out for the Troitzski, with that intent: but Czar Peter ordered her to be stopped on the road, and carried back to Moscow, and thence to Dewitz, a convent of her own foundation; where she was confined the remainder of her life, which was fifteen years, from 1689, to 1704. Galliczin and his fon, and several of his friends, were banished to Karga, a town in the north of Siberia, for life,

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life, at an allowance of three pence per day. As for the General Theodore, after a fevere examination by torture, and the punishment of the Knout; by which he was wrought upon to confefs that he was appointed to kill the Czar, his mother, and her three brothers, and to discover his principals; he was beheaded. Several others, who had accepted of the commiffion to assist in the affaffination, had their heads sha ved, were tie dfaft to a stake, and had boiling water poured drop by drop on their skulls, which put them to fuch exquifite and intolerable pain, that they immediately acknowledged their crime, and discovered their accomplices also, and were severally punished with death, banishment, &c. according to the will of the incensed Czar Peter; who, two days after these executions were over, returned to Mofcow, and made his entry on horseback, attended by 18,000. Strelitzes for his guard. His wife and mother followed foon after in a coach. The Czar John fłood to receive his brother at the steps entering into the palace: they embraced; and Peter afking John to be friends, who answering, that he was willing to be reconciled, and that he had acted no part in the plots of his fifter, but under conftraint, they each retired to their respective apartments. And thus ended the regency of the Princess Sophia.

From this time Czar Peter reigned almost absolute; his brother John's name being feldom mentioned but in the public acts; and though he, at this time, gave no presages of being that great Prince he afterwards appeared to be, taking delight in very idle and cruel diversions, and having but little of the politician in him, he was so happy in the choice of a favourite, that from thence may be properly dated the foundation of the true Ruf fian grandeur: and from him the Czar imbibed such notions of virtue and propriety as made him afterwards one of the most illustrious Princes that ever reigned.

The favourite was M. Le Fort, the son of a reputable family at Geneva; who, according to M. de la Motraye, having finished his studies at college, was placed with M. Franconis, a confiderable merchant at Amsterdam, to learn the mysteries of trade, tho' his inclination was strongly inclined to a military life. An inclination, which, though for the present it gave way to the duties of a compting-house, foon revived at the fight of the Danish troops, on his arrival at Copenhagen, whither his master had sent him in quality of a fupercargo. Here young Le Fort discharged his commiffion with great advantage to his master; and his good air, and personal merit, gained him access to perfons of the best distinction; and, in particular, to the Ambassador that was nominated to go to the court of Moscow, who, charmed with his person and address, offered to admit him among his pages; which offer he accepted of with great pleafure, having first obtained his father's and his master's confent.

In this ambassage M. Le Fort soon acquired the Ruffian tongue and the German so perfectly, that he became qualified to be his master's interpreter. It was in this capacity the Czar first took notice of him, one day as he dined with his Excellency; when, being pleased with his address, his readiness in speaking the language of the country, and the answers he made to feveral questions, his Czarish Majesty asked him if he was willing to enter into his service? To which M. Le Fort, in the 'most respectful manner, replied, That, whatever ambition he might have to serve so great a Monarch, yet the duty and gratitude he owed to his master, would not allow him to promife any thing without his consent. But, said the Czar, if I have your mafter's consent, will you then be willing? Yes, replied our adventurer; but I beg your Majesty would ask by fome other interpreter. than myself. The Czar then, by one of his own interpreters, took notice that that Le Fort fpoke good Russian. Το which the Ambassador replied, that he had a genius to learn any thing: for when he came to me, faid he, he fpoke the German but ill: and, tho' I have only two persons in my train that speak the German, he now speaks as well as either of them. He did not know one word of the Sclavonian (of which the Ruffian is a dialect) when he came into Courland, and yet your Majesty says he speaks good Ruffian. Le Fort, at the first hearing these commendations, withdrew to a diftant part of the room; which modeft behaviour did not a little increase the Czar's good opinion of him. At present he took no more notice, and only called to him to bring him a glass of wine. But, the next time the Ambassador came to court, the Czar told him, he had a defire to have Le Fort about him, and asked if he would part with him? The Ambassador replied, that the exchange was too ad vantageous to Le Fort, that he wished him too well, and had too great a regard to the commands of his Majesty, not to confent to it. Accordingly Le Fort entered into the Czar's service, the next day, in quality of his first in terpreter; and foon became fo great a favourite, that he was carried with with him wherever he went, continually asking him about the customs and policy of the courts of Savoy, France, and Denmark, which he had feen, and other foreign affairs. And, amongst other things, difcoursing one day on the King of Denmark's life-guards, the Czar asked him what he thought of his ? "Your guards, and all your Majesty's foldiers, faid Le Fort, are fine well-made men, who want nothing but to be well difciplined, and cloathed in a proper manner." In particular, he objected against their long coats, as inconvenient and unbecoming a foldier. Couldst thou let me fee, faid the Czar, some cloaths that are more convenient? Le Fort promised to do his endeavours, and in two days time appeared at the Czar's levee in the regimentals of a Captain of the guards;

which altered him in such a manner, that his Majesty did not know him ti!! he spoke, but was much approved of by him. And in two days after he returned to the same place in the dress of a private centinel: upon fight whereof, the Czar declared he would have such for a whole company, who should be disciplined after the foreign manner.

M. Le Fort with great diligence executed his Majesty's orders; and, having engaged all the taylors, found among the foreigners, to clothe fifty of the tallest and handsomest Strelizes, and others that had some military knowledge; he marched at their head with beat of drum to the palace-gate, one morning, a little before the Strelitzes mounted guard.

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The Czar coming to the window was much surprized, but highly pleased with the fight: and, after he had seen Le Fort give them their first lesson of military exercise, he enlisted himself in their company to learn the same, and ordered a fuit of cloaths to be made for himself, as for a private centinel and from this time he rejected all luxury and unmanly pleasures, to which his predecessors had been addicted, and led an active life, continually labouring for the good of his country. He even descended low as to take the meanest post in his army, that of a drummer, strictly forbidding his Captain to remember him as Czar. In which post he served with all due fubmiffion; lived upon his pay, and lay in the tent of a drummer, till promoted to the degree of a ferjeant, which was not till he had deserved it, in the judgment of his Officers, whom he threatened to punish, if they should judge too favourably of him. By this procedure, he gave his Nobility to understand, that birth alone was not enough to intitle them to military preferments. And the hardships and low employments he went through himself, seemed to give him the stronger right to demand a strict observance of their duty in his fubjects.

His

His Majesty, capable of every thing, foon excelled in this exercise, and was thus acting the part of a life-guardman, while his brother John, more agreeable to his natural weakness, maintained the port of a Czar; and, willing to have all his troops disciplined in the same manner, he commanded Captain Le Fort to enlist all the foreigners he could get. By these means he foon raised a confiderable corps, all commanded by foreigners, and difciplined after the German manner, whom he employed, in that time of peace, in mock battles and sieges; to teach them experience without loss of blood, and to keep in action that agility and courage which were the prelude of future victories.

M. Le Fort having thus put it in the power of the Czar to encourage foreigners, and they finding it worth while to leave their own countries, there foon appeared in Russia an infinite number of all nations, especially Germans, Scots, and French; not only Officers and experienced soldiers for his army, but men skilful and expert in every profession. And in all his proceedings this great and good man was generous and disinterefted to that degree, that he never accepted of any the least present from those he put into employments ; but yet by his merit, his services, and other justifiable and honourable means, he acquired immense riches, which he possessed without envy from the Russians, who looked upon him as their father, and loved him. He saved the lives of an infinite number of Boyars, and other rich perfons, to whom the Czar would have given the Knout, or beheaded

with his own hands: when he was about to do this, many times on trifling occafions, Le Fort would present his own head or shoulders to him, bidding him cut or strike there, but spare the innocent perfon. Which generosity made the Czar fo fenfible of his barbarity, that he would take him in his arms, and kiss him, and sometimes the trembling victim, whom he was the minute before ready to facrifice to his wild

passion. In fine, he in all things ftadied the interest of his master, and his subjects: and, to take away all jealousy from the Russians against the foreigners he had introduced into the country, he would recommend such of the natives to the Czar for preferment, whom he himself, or fome of those foreigners, had taken pains to qualify for the most profitable employments. His own merit was fixed on the solid basis of such honour and integrity, that he feared no rivals. Of which we can't defire a stronger proof, than his care to prepare and make fit Menzicoff for the great posts he afterwards enjoyed, who was just then taken into favour from the dregs of the people. This new favourite, when first taken notice of by the Czar, was no more than a ballad-finger, and servant to a pastry-cook, whose bufiness was to cry about the streets a fort of puffs and cakes made of minced meat: but from this low degree, and from one of the poorest, he, in time, became one of the richest subjects that ever was in Russia; obtained the title of a Prince, and built palaces more magnificent than those of the Czar himself.

As the poor boy cried his pastry a bout the streets, he so diverted the Czar with one of his songs, that his Majesty ordered him into his presence, and asked him if he would fell his pies, and his basket; and how much he would have for them? The boy immediately replied, that he had a right to sell his pies; but for his bafket he must ask his master's leave, before he could dispose of it to any body elfe: but, as every thing belonged to his Majesty, he needed only to lay his commands on him. This reply pleased the Czar so much, that he immediately ordered him to come to Court, with a promise of his favour. Here his first employment was but very mean: but the Czar, frequently converfing with him, soon discovered his intrinfic worth, and placed him near his person, and made him groom of his bed-chamber. He was very handfome

some in his person; tall and well-shaped. And, at his first admission into the Czar's service, he lifted himself into M. Le Fort's company of foldiers; and behaved in that fituation so much to the good liking of that General, that he instructed him in knowledge and skill enough to command armies; which he afterwards undertook with the greatest success, and became one of the braveft and most victorious Generals in the Russian service.

About the fame time that the Czar began the reformation of his army, an accident happened, that put his Majesty on a new pursuit still more difficult than the former. A small English vefsel, which he saw floating on a lake at Ifmaeloff, one of his pleasure-houses, where it had long laid abandoned and useless, revived in him the spirit of his father Alexis, and gave him the notion of a fleet, though at that time he had no place to use it except the White fea. And M. Le Fort, among other things about shipping, so strongly laid before him the advantages that the maritime powers of Europe reaped from their naval affairs, that he immediately refolved to build a fleet of small ships on the lake Perislausky, and caused now and then mock-fights to be performed thereon: on which occafions he acted and commanded as a Seacaptain, and added that title to all his others.

Thus improved under the good and wife instructions of M. Le Fort, his Council advifed him, at the instance of the Emperor of Germany, the Poles, and the Venetians, to declare war with the Turks and Tartars, in the year 1694. And, in consequence thereto, having engaged in his service several Hollanders for that purpose, he commanded several gallies and other veffels to be built and equipped on the river Veronis, which with some open boats of the Cossacks, who inhabit about 700 Russ miles on the Tanais or Don, he employed next year in besieging Azoph, situated at the mouth of the laft mentioned river, where it falls into the Palus Mæotis: which im.

portant place he had certainly carried in the year 1695, his first campaign, had it not been for the treachery of one Jacob, a foreigner, employed in the Russian artillery, who, to be revenged of a certain Boyar under whom he served, for keeping back his pay, nailed up the cannon on the batteries entrusted to his care, deserted in the night, and incited the enemy, reduced to the utmost necessity, and ready to capitulate, to make a bold fally; by which they threw the Muscovites into great confusion, and flew so many, that they were forced foon after to leave the place for that year, and to turn the fiege into a blockade. However the Czar, who in this expedition entered himself as an Ensign only, though he had an army of between 90,000 foot, and 20,000 horse, well difciplined troops, was every-where during the fiege; faw every thing done himself, and made remarks on what had happened. And the accounts of whatever he performed himself were greatly exaggerated all over Europe: which gave the world an idea of him quite different from what had been conceived of any of his predecessors, and began to raise hopes of him, which were afterwards fully accomplished.

Czar John died foon after Peter's return to Moscow, in February 1696, and left three daughters, one of which is that illustrious princess Anne Joannowna, who now sways the Imperial fceptre of Russia. Of whom a late writer gives us this favourable idea, that, though he loved his sister very much, yet her reigning jointly with him and his brother did so little please him, that upon all occafions he rather fided with his brother than with her. And his great regard for the welfare of the Empire made him often say, that, when his brother Peter should come of age, he would resign the whole power and the throne to him. His own widow has faid, that, when the once told him the Czar Peter flighted Princess Sophia too much, his answer was, 'She is my own fitter, but has used Peter so ill, she does not deserve we should